The present invention relates to a method for controlling an apparatus for measurement of characteristics of a semiconductor device under test. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for controlling electronic characteristic measurement apparatuses that change connections thereof to measure electronic characteristics of integrated circuit devices or discrete electronic circuit devices.
There is an apparatus which measures electronic characteristics of devices to be tested (hereinafter referred to as “devices under test” (DUTs)), such as discrete electronic circuit devices or integrated circuit devices including semiconductors or the like. With such an apparatus, multiple measurements are performed on one DUT. For example, the measurement is performed by switching among a combination of capacitance measurement for layer-thickness evaluation and gate leakage current measurement for the MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) gate oxide layer, a combination of the evaluation of line capacitance and line-to-line leakage, and a combination of the evaluation of junction capacitance and IV (current-voltage) characteristics for bipolar transistor.
FIG. 1 shows a known example of equipment for measuring electronic characteristics, such as current-voltage characteristics, by using a probe apparatus 100 to probe a DUT 10. The apparatus 22 capable of measuring electrical capacitance (which apparatus will hereinafter be referred to as a “CMU” (capacitance measure unit)) is connected to the DUT 10 to be used. In this known example, one or more apparatuses in which a DC (direct current) voltage source, a current source, a voltmeter, and an ammeter are integrated in such a manner that they can be used in an arbitrary combination are connected to the DUT 10. Such apparatuses are called source monitor units or source measurement units (hereinafter referred to as “SMUs”) and can be used independently or in combination. In the example shown in FIG. 1, an SMU 20 (including SMUs 201 and 202) and the CMU 22, which are mounted in an equipment rack 200, are used to perform measurement. For measurement using the SMU 20 and the CMU 22, an SCUU (SMU CMU Unity Unit) may be used to connect the probe apparatus 100 for probing the DUT 10 and the SMU 20 and the CMU 22 and also to switch between the SMU 20 and the CMU 22.
With such an SCUU, when the DUT 10 and the CMU 22 are interconnected and measurement is performed using the CMU 22, dielectric absorption occurs at terminals between switches (switching means) in the SCUU. When the DUT 10 and the SMU 20 are interconnected, micro current is generated in the SCUU. Consequently, some waiting time may be required for the measurement. For example, in order for the SMU 20 to perform high-accuracy measurement at 1 fA (femtoampere) or less after the CMU 22 performs measurement with a voltage of about 100 V, it may be necessary to have a waiting time of about 60 seconds. In such a case, even if the SCUU quickly switches between the SMU 20 and the CMU 22, measurement cannot be performed promptly.